Flight to Fall
by The Emerald Oinker
Summary: [UNFINISHED DISCONTINUED]What happened at the end of the game? What if they got in trouble, what if, they lost control of the Highwind and crashed? rather rushed at the end of part 4 but it shall twist off.....
1. Chapter One

Final Fantasy VII

(Green_Pig:- Well this is chapter one, hope you like and remember to R/R! I think I'll have to carry on with my Harry Potter fanfics now…BTW, see if you can spot the reference to Final Fantasy the movie okies…? hehehe)

**DISCLAIMER:** All characters and settings are copyright of Squaresoft, Final Fantasy rulez! Don't sue me cuz I'm just doing this for some fun and I gain no profit from it!

Final Fantasy VII

Flight to Fall****

By Green_Pig

After defeating Sephiroth at the centre of the planet the group of warriors known as AVALANCHE are journeying home to be back with their families.Midgar is destroyed; the lifestream and Meteor have killed everyone in the foul city down below.

All over the world, even after maybe two or three hours since Midgar became nothing more than a pile of scrap metal, people are throwing away everything to do with the Shinra – except for their precious materia of course – and revising new ways to start their lives.Although the destruction of the richest city in the world shook the peace, people are quickly trying to forget about it.The village of Kalm very close by Midgar sleeps silently with troubled dreams, watching out their windows for any survivors though they know there are none.Marlene Wallace settles down with Elmyra, Aries' adoptive mother, and they fall asleep thinking about their loved ones and the future.

Elmyra does not yet know that Aries is dead and waits as patiently as she waited for her husband to return home.Little Marlene is looking forward to seeing her Daddy after being away from him for so long, she keeps telling herself that he will return and has not left this world.

On the Highwind, now a trembling wreck from the blast of the Northern Crater and the high-density magnetic field emitted by the intense destruction of Midgar, our heroes watch the world trundling by out of the large front window.They have witnessed the destruction of Midgar, the coming of the life force – the lifestream – and the death of thousands.They have watched the strength of the planet, saw how it vanquished the Shinra who were sucking out the very life of their world ignorant of the damage they were doing, they fought against Sephiroth and Cloud finally fitted the pieces of his puzzle into place.Tifa stands next to him with her head on his shoulder quietly enjoying the romantic moment they have together.They have finished what they set out to do, now what comes next?The planet is saved, Shinra are destroyed, gone, never to return and Sephiroth has finally returned to the planet to be reborn in another as a normal everyday person.That is the way life goes on, people die and their spirits and energy live again in another newborn baby, who knows what will happen to Sephiroth's spirit?What about Aries?

Cloud shakes his head miserably and keeps watching the sea churning below.

"I wonder if we'll ever meet again." He said.

"Who?" Tifa whispered closing her eyes and leaning on him more.

"If the spirit and life force of a person returns to the planet when they die, only to become another person somewhere else, will that mean Aries and Sephiroth are already somewhere in this world starting a new life?As Ancients?" Before Tifa could answer Red XIII appeared behind them and answered for her.

"Their spirits and life force live again but as new things," He said mystically in his gruff catlike voice. "Aries and Sephiroth's souls will be separated into a million particles of lifestream energy, maybe, or most probably even the lifestream we saw destroying Meteor and Midgar had their spirits within.They will be reborn as new and different from what they were as you and I are so different." Cloud nodded.

"I understand.Somewhere out there are two new babies, born exactly or very soon after Sephiroth and Aries died- "

"You are wrong again." Red snapped. "Their souls and life force may rest in the planet for a long time, they may return as a beast or a plant, maybe even become part of the planet's actual life force – it's core.There is no way of telling where they are now, or ever.I think what's best we do is find somewhere to land and stock up on supplies, find other ways of getting back home because I don't think the Highwind is going to last much longer…" Red lowered his voice to a fearful whisper looking warily around at the shaking machine.Then he stalked away and settled down in the corner with his paws over his head.

He's right, the ship is shaking terribly from the damage, a fraction of its original size, Cid is piloting with what's left of his crew shouting orders now and then with a good deal of enthusiastic swearing, the Highwind – or rather the little flying winged plane it has now become, is creaking and shakes badly when they fly through strong wind causing everyone to freeze for a few moments holding on to parts of the ship for life.As Cloud watches the outside world fly past in his own tangled mess of thoughts and Tifa leans against him with their arms wrapped around each other in silence, Cid and the others are seriously considering taking the only remaining parachute for themselves.

Barret is nervously reloading his gun arm and thinking about how great it will be when he comes home to Marlene, wherever Elmyra took her and watching over the casualties at the back.Yuffie and Vincent have both been poisoned and there are no more antidotes on board – most of their supplies were lost when the ship broke up.Yuffie is also silenced and put into Darkness while Vincent nurses his broken deformed arm alone, they are both quickly losing more and more health.Cait Sith is inactive, arms down by its side and body limp and lifeless.Reeve must either be dead or lost all his equipment to communicate via his robot.Their magic is low; they have no more potions or elixiers, ethers, antidotes, not much that will be of any use.There is one X-potion remaining on board and Cloud has it safely in his pocket.

"We can't hold this f***ing thing anymore! It's getting harder to control her!"

"Try and land us somewhere then!" Cloud shouted rushing round to take hold of a lever to keep the ship steadier while Cid flapped about with the steering wheel.It is clear though that the ship is fast losing bits and pieces.Red groaned and slipped away on his belly to the back with the casualties.

"What's goin' on 'ere? Can' you bloody control this thing? You're the pilot!"

"Come here and say that to me!" Cid screamed back trying to keep hold of the wheel and attempting to lunge at Barret.

"Captain!"

"Don't whine! Hold the wheel you baby!"

"But there's a mountain right ahead and we can't lift! The controls have jammed!" Cid stared right ahead with the rest of the crew, Cloud, Tifa, Barret and even Red peeking through his paws.Right ahead was a mountain range and there wasn't even enough time to attempt the turn.The ship trembled and muttering the word _'shit' _Cid tried one last time to take control of the ship.Everyone including the crew left the controls and ran to the back of the ship where everyone else was bracing themselves for the inevitable.

The Highwind lurched one last time and at that moment the engine cut out, Cid screamed some more bad language and dived to the back with the rest as the ship missed the mountain but fell straight down into a forest, breaking up and bursting into flames.The wreckage crashed into the trees, scraping along the branches crumbling to bits.When it finally came to a stop, flaming and smoking thick black smoke someone dragged themselves out of a gaping hole in the ship and collapsed out into the mud.

Red shook his fur and staggered back up to look at the remains.He howled weakly to the hole and after a few minutes a hand appeared.It wore a black glove with the fingers exposed; it was Vincent and he pulled himself up to his waist, pulling something up with his other hand – the deformed one.Tifa came up next holding onto him and they both climbed out, she was clutching her bloodied waist and at once out she sunk to the ground gasping with pain.Vincent's deformed arm was broken and usually he let no one touch it, Red supposed that this one time was an exception being that her life had been in danger.

"I don't know if there's anyone else left in there.I heard movement but Tifa was the only one I could get." Vincent mumbled to Red stepping away to the shadows and clutching his arm.Red leapt back into the mess and found Yuffie trapped under a lot of twisted metal and wires.The whole thing was just a mess of sparking wires and bent metal, moving about in it was very difficult.

Tifa fished around in her belt and found a tiny glowing green piece of materia, the mastered cure magic had a bright white glow at the centre that proved it, she used cure 3 and healed her wound.The bleeding stopped and she could now try and find Cloud.Where was Vincent?

Red backed out dragging Yuffie by his teeth. She was unconscious, still alive but very weak.Tifa knew she didn't have much magic power left, so she first checked her over and found that she now had a broken leg as well as al the other sicknesses.

"Yuffie! Yuffie wake up!" There was no response.Tifa felt around her belt again for an eye-drop.Thankfully she found one and got rid of Yuffie's blindness, then she used a cure to heal her leg and with very little magic left now she used that to create a remedy and heal her of her poison.Yuffie opened her eyes and coughed.

"Woahhhh, Where am I?" She muttered.

"The Highwind crashed, you're alright now so I'm leaving to help the others.Stay there!" She ran off and just as she was climbing in Cloud poked his head over and said rather happily with a dazed look:

"Hey! Red's trying to pull Barret out; he's trapped under lots of wreckage.Cid's nowhere to be seen."

"I saw him leap out before we crashed!"

"Then I'll go and find him, help Red!" Cloud got his sense back and sped off, then Barret appeared through the hole and heaved himself out.

"Daaaamn." He gasped cracking his knuckles and putting his gun arm back in its socket.Red leapt out.

"Cid's not here!"

"He jumped out, Cloud's gone to find him."

"Well that's good, is Yuffie alright?"

"I'm fine! In fact I'm better, I'm GREAT!"

"Vincent's out, Barret, Yuffie, Tifa, Cloud, Cid's somewhere, where's Cait Sith? It must still be inside there."

"Don't worry about him too much Red," Tifa said. "It's a robot so when we're sure everyone alive's okay we can try and get him out.What about the three remaining members of the crew?"

"They're all dead." He said sadly, his ears flattening.

_~Final Fantasy VII~_

_ _

By nightfall the group had realised that they were really stuck.Cid was caught red handed with the parachute that they had saved, he was told to sit away from the group and think about what he had done.Everyone were well and around a small burning fire of sticks, Cait Sith had been retrieved and although he had a few scratches on him, even though his fur was poking out from one or two little rips and the giant stuffed Mog had lost an eye, at least it was out and safe with the rest of them.Red was curled asleep furthest from the fire and Cloud was rather shyly allowing Tifa to fall asleep with her head in his lap.Barret was snoring quietly for such a big man, flat out on the ground facing up to the open stars.Yuffie had run off earlier to catch something to eat and Vincent still hadn't shown up since he rescued Tifa.

Cloud and Cid were the only ones awake.They sat far from each other looking ahead not speaking a word, not because they were angry at each other, but because they had nothing to say and were too tired to start a conversation.

Cid soon grunted and mumbled some inaudible words, then hugged his small jacket closer to him.It was going to be a cold night.Cloud sighed sadly and lifted his head to the sky, looking at the bright white stars wondering if Aries and his mother were watching them right now.Here they were, stranded on an island somewhere in the north without any mode of transport or hardly any provisions left – the tents and other flammable things had been burned to ashes, they had all nearly run out of magic completely and their only Gold Chocobo, raised from an egg had been lost since the Highwind broke apart in the blast from the Northern Crater.

They were completely stranded on an island he was sure they'd never been to before, or at least, one they didn't stay long on.

Someone stepped from the shadows and Cloud could make out the shape of his friend Vincent.He came into the light of the fire and settled himself down, cross-legged onto the ground opposite Cloud and Tifa.He didn't say a word; just kept his human hand clutched to his deformed one and his eyes cast down.

"Where have you been?" Cloud asked gently, he knew by now that being harsh with Vincent would probably make him even more silent and brooding.

"………"

"How's your arm? Will it fix?" Vincent's scarlet eyes flashed up at him as if daring him to make something of it, then shrugged and still he did not speak.

"I'm glad you got Tifa out, thanks man."

"………" Cloud's legs were beginning to go dead so he gently nudged Tifa until she woke then reluctantly she pushed off and curled up in a ball next to him.With only a leather mini skirt and a small top on Cloud wondered how it was she didn't feel the cold as much as him, his one bare shoulder with the spike armour was already freezing.Well, they were in the north somewhere.

"It was the least I could do." Cloud's head shot up; surprised to hear Vincent speak.

"About what? Sorry."

"… You helped me get revenge on Hojo a while back… It seemed only fair that I'd repay you back by saving your girlfriend…" Cloud blushed.

"Well, er, we aren't really a, _thing_… We never said."

"You should protect her… Keep her safe and always with you…" Vincent's hollow and sad voice silenced and he didn't say another word all night, or the next day until the group had decided to see if they could salvage anything from the crash site.

"I found a whole pile of items guys! I'll have 'em unless you get your butts moving quick enough!" Cid and Red leapt up but before they could get to her, Yuffie had scooped the whole lot in her arms and somersaulted backwards to land on a tree branch.She stood on one foot and stuck out her tongue, pulled her eyelid down and laughed.

"NO ONE is faster than the daughter of GODO! Namely ME!"

"Damn it girl! Get your ass down here now!"

"I aint listening to you old man! Come up here and get 'em for yourself!" Yuffie teased climbing higher into the tree.Red mumbled a low growl and shot past Cid leaping onto the tree trunk with the ease and skill of any cat, in no time Yuffie screamed full of surprise and fell out of the tree to land on her back, dropping the items around her.Red leapt down and made a triumphant pose.

"I was only having some FUN! I wasn't REALLY going to pinch them!" She moaned standing to her feet and looking around at everyone's angry expressions.It was clear they didn't think it was very funny.Vincent didn't look as though he really cared though, as usual.

"Well now is not exactly the time to be making jokes Yuffie." Cloud said coldly.

"Well EXCUUUSE ME!" She folded her arms across her chest and remained obedient for the rest of the day.What they all found at the end of the second day was a lot of twisted and burnt metal and lots of empty potion bottles, smashed and broken all around the site.They had been empty before but seeing them all there made the group realise how bad their situation was.At the campfire that night all were present and it was time to discuss their situation, the items Yuffie had found turned out to be 26 grenades, Cloud's old Buster sword, and one last remaining phoenix down, not much at all.

"What have you got Cid?" Cloud said. "I mean in items." Cid reached into his trouser pockets and pulled out a lot of strange looking things.

"Piece of string…" He laid it out nicely smoothing down the edges before them all."Ummm….some…thing I don't know.An old sandwich. I think." That too was placed with as much care. "And of course, the most important thing – my fags." He grinned laying out a packet of ten.The group looked down at them with deep loathing.

"Is-that-all?" Barret said slowly looking down at the measly little things.

"Yep.Sorry.What have you got on ya?"

"Not a thang." Cait Sith and Red also had nothing, Yuffie had to be caught and pinned down and Tifa was very serious about the fact that Yuffie would rather have a woman search her pockets than have men fondling about in them.In the end, Cloud had one X-potion and three grenades, Cid had... well nothing of use and Tifa had six Shinra dolls _'12 in a set!'_ – no one did know why they collected them but they all guessed it was just something to pick up along the way with everything else.

"This doesn't make any sense!" Cloud sighed throwing his arms up "We had _loads_ more than this! Where'd it all _go?"_

_ _

"Lost when the Highwind broke up – everything was stored in the main storage compartment.All of our savings, the molotov's and fire veils… everything's gone." Cid said.Cloud shook his head and piled the lot in front of him.

"Well where shall we keep all this stuff then?" Yuffie flinched and decided not to raise her hand.

"We can put them in… we could, we could make some sort of chest and put it all in there." Red said brightly. "But don't forget that tomorrow when we are all rested we can battle with the local wildlife and gain more items – potions for example." That comment seemed to cheer everyone up – they had forgotten the most obvious and easiest way to get items and Gil in the world.So on the second night at the crash site they all slept more soundly and this time they had just managed to find one tent, which the girls had the luck to occupy tonight.Cloud and Cid slept on either side of the tent, Barret snoozed sitting up and Cait Sith was still unmovable.Reeve might be dead.

Vincent never slept.Since the day Cloud and Tifa with Aries had opened his coffin and persuaded him to join them all he had never shut his eyes for more than five minutes.He had slept for thirty years, full of nightmares and the memories of his failure to protect Lucrecia from the mad wishes of Hojo, he was afraid that if he did sleep again then the pain will come back and he'd never be able to awaken again.It had been a long time, journeying across the world trying to stay away from the Shinra and find Sephiroth, in the time he had been with them he had grown in strength, mastered the limit skill _'Chaos'_ and could now say that he did play a part in the final battle for the planet.The last battle with Jenova and Sephiroth was fought by Cloud, Yuffie and himself – that was why she and himself were injured so badly afterwards.Although Yuffie had been saved by Tifa's quick thinking and magic power, he had not yet managed to heal his arm, the poison had somehow worn off him – he must have become immune to it.While his friends slept their HP and MP restored itself but he had not slept for so long, his HP and MP was low and he was getting more worried that one day, maybe soon, he'd sleep and then that'd be the end of him.

He was fifty-seven._Fifty-seven_, but still twenty-seven in physical form.That was something he could be proud of at least, when you are young, everyone wants to live forever or at least stay looking young right into old age.He had wanted it then, now that he had it, it wasn't much fun.

There was another thing troubling him apart from his fear of sleeping, it had been bothering him since the death of Sephiroth, whilst still inside the northern crater.It was the love Cloud and Tifa held for each other.He was worried because he thought he was becoming more and more jealous of them each day.It saddened him to think that maybe he was disgracing Lucrecia's memory by thinking about falling in love with other women, not that he held any feelings for anyone right now.He just…

… He just wanted someone to love _him._

(Green_Pig:- AaaaawwwWW! I love Vincent so much! XD)


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two Preinstall Normal Preinstall 2 0 2001-10-31T16:55:00Z 2001-10-31T16:55:00Z 3 1340 7640 63 15 9382 9.2720 

_Chapter Two_

The next day everyone paired off and searched the island for enemies to battle, refreshed and revived from their sleep.  Cloud with Tifa – the two highest levelled members of the group both over level 85, Barret with Cid – both only four levels below Tifa - and Vincent was with Yuffie.  Vincent was at level 72.  Yuffie at level 70.  he was not feeling particularly well the next morning, his HP was still low, only at 2000 and his magic had all but gone.  Yuffie didn't seem to notice his reluctance to battle as enthusiastically as her.

"Come on Vinny!" _'Vinny'? No one has ever called me that._

"I'd rather let you gain the experience, you need it more than me."

"Oh _thank you very much_, how _gracious_ you are to me Vinny." She mocked.

"The young are always so eager to prove themselves.  I don't feel the need so much at my age." Yuffie tilted her head.

"How old are you?" She enquired sincerely.

"Twenty-seven." He said quickly, he wasn't sure if he should start revealing the truth, after all they had come all this way together hadn't they?

"Oh, I'd've thought you'd be older, you being a grown man back when Sephiroth was born.  How old _was _Sephiroth anyway?" Vincent paused.  Sephiroth had been born just before he was put in that coffin, he was woken thirty years later and Cloud did reveal after that five years before that he did in fact kill Sephiroth.

"Twenty-five when he died, about that age.  All this time, it was his spirit we were fighting, I think… This whole story is so confusing…"

"You got that right." They walked on a few more paces in silence.  This was really the first time they had ever been together like this, Yuffie wasn't sure what to say.  She was a loud-mouthed little girl who liked to make her point and have fun, Vincent was so opposite though, she was worried that anything she might say would trigger off something, like a hidden rage perhaps.  Maybe she had been a bit foolish to call him Vinny…

"I have to return back to camp…" Vincent said suddenly feeling a bolt shoot up his left arm, he struggled to hide the pain in his voice that Yuffie heard.  She nodded, seemingly more relaxed than ever.

"Okay, I'll keep on after all I am a Ninja and survived in the world perfectly well before Cloud found me." She grinned. "See ya Vinny!" Then she leapt away into the bushes, wondering why the hell she was suddenly bright red in the face.  Vincent clenched his teeth and grunted, he tried to bend his fingers on his left hand but they were stiff and painful.  He turned and quickly swooped through the trees back to the camp.

_~Final Fantasy VII~_

That night everyone once again sat around the fire and laid out their winnings.  Twenty-seven potions, 14 ethers, a lot of Molotovs and one piece of magic materia that Yuffie found – supposedly – lying about underneath a log.

"I did I swear!"

"Then why'd you decide to go rooting around under logs?"

"That's where you find stuff silly! People always drop stuff under bushes and logs, I should know man."

"Has anyone actually seen another person on this island? Do we even know where we are?!" Cloud panicked. "We have no transport off this island and we haven't got a clue where abouts in the world we are!" Cid leaned forward.

"Calm down man! Last I knew we were heading northeast, the quickest way back to Wutai.  I don't think this place is on the map." Everyone leaned forward, except for Vincent who had not gathered with them and Cait Sith who was still immobile.

"What do you mean?" Tifa asked. "We're on an undiscovered island…?"

"With no transport…?" Cloud added.

"No map…" Red said.

"An' no damn way of gettin' offa it?" Barret growled.  Cid leaned back holding his hands up starting to feel a little worried.

"Now now guys, I never said we were COMPLETELY in the gutter did I…?" They didn't seem to agree and soon enough they pushed the subject to the back of their minds and got into the subject at hand; Supper – all thanks to the brilliant Yuffie who seemed to have a knack for finding things.

_~Final Fantasy VII~_

Vincent wasn't at the fire with the others; he was sitting down by the gaping hole of what was left of the Highwind, his long cloak wrapped around him holding his left arm to his stomach.

Each member of AVALANCHE, and anyone who travelled a lot or were always ready to fight, wore a wristband that showed your level of HP and MP, when your limit gage was full, it was one of Shinra's greatest creations and one of the only creations Vincent didn't mind using.  It was very handy and right now it showed that his health despite the fact that he hadn't been in any fights since the end battle at Northern Crater, was lower than it was earlier.  Much lower.

It was the poison.  Obviously he was not immune to it as he had presumed, just because he couldn't feel it eating away at him it was still there slowly taking down his health.  Vincent wasn't carrying any healing materia or potions, even if he did he didn't have enough MP to use it.

Sleep… he had to sleep and heal… but sleep risked more nightmares, they would come back to him and then maybe he wouldn't be able to come back.  Right now though, his left arm was throbbing, he could feel the blood pumping round it and gingerly decided to take off the metal armour.

Despite what the others thought, Hojo had not completely turned his arm into a robotic one, underneath the metal was…he did not really know; he hadn't ever wanted to look.

_~Final Fantasy VII~_

Yuffie was carrying some cooked meat on a makeshift tray – whatever it had been before she didn't know but it tasted good.  She was taking it to Vincent, who she was sure would be somewhere around the ruins of the Highwind.  She walked around a tree and pushed through some weeds into a clearing, the Highwind lay in a scrap heap, bits of wire, cable and metal hung down from branches all twisted up, Yuffie walked on treading carefully through shards of glass and other unrecognisable bits of metal on tip-toes. She made it to a corner, where part of the wing had bent inwards blocking her path, the yellow sense materia – mastered – suddenly started vibrating in her pocket and she knew that someone was just around the corner.  She peeked round and smiled realising it was Vincent and that she was being very naughty by spying on him, then her expression changed to that of complete surprise and curiousness because he was just starting to, what it looked like to her, take off his metal arm.  Yuffie watched.  Fascinated…

_~Final Fantasy VII~_

Slowly he felt around at the thing until his fingers came to a groove, he held on and gently pulled at it until it opened up like a case.  The cold chill of the evening air rushed in and he felt something touching his arm once again after being locked up for thirty years, it wasn't really that bad.  Vincent looked up quickly and saw no one, adjusting how he sat he lifted the rest of the metal off and stared hard at his naked left arm, his eyes widening in…not fear, but wonder, in a way it fascinated him because even though the rest of his body had stayed young, his arm had grown old and sallow with age, it felt tender at his touch and the ends of his fingers…

…Like a beast's claws, they were thin and unnaturally long, bent slightly at the end with short sharp claws instead of fingernails, various blotches of purple or blue dots were patterned all the way up his arm like a strange new disease or like a mass of bruises, bits of metal were dotted up the arm, poking through his skin like the heads of nails.  He brushed his arm with his right index finger and shivered at the touch, tiny white hairs rose automatically to hold the warmth of his body in.  It was perfectly clear to him now what Hojo had done; he had injected Jenova cells directly into his arm and encased it in the metal armour to protect it from harm, then the cells had travelled through his body via the blood and changed him to be eternally young until the day he would die.  The arm was practically useless now, all it was, was a deformed limb growing old in time and weaker as the Jenova cells inside him grew stronger turning him into a monster.

He looked at the wristband – it was called a Status Meter – and saw that he was getting weaker; he would have to sleep to save himself.  But did he want to save himself? All these years he just wanted to die, now though… he wanted to live, death frightened him as much as it did to everyone else.  Vincent put the case back on again and strangely it reassured him of his safety, without it he was hideous and repulsive, with it he was just a strange young looking man with a dark and secret past.  He lay back with everything seemingly normal and closed his eyes.

It was so easy to drift away… he was so tired…

_~Final Fantasy VII~_

Yuffie stood back and let out her breath.  So _that_ was what Vincent held underneath…scary.  She decided not to try and give him some food, he probably wouldn't have wanted it anyway, no one had ever seen Vincent remove his mask so no one had seen him eat… she wasn't even sure if Vincent _did_ eat… the whole storyline was a complete messed up idea... she turned away slowly, hesitating at first but then striding off confidently back to the fire to settle down for the night.


	3. Chapter Three

(Green_Pig:- Hiyo! Thought I'd better dish out a new chapter! Aww, this is so sweet! Am writing next chapter right now!!! Byeeeeeeeeee!)

**DISCLAIMER:** All characters and settings belong to Squaresoft and all the rest of those who make Final Fantasy games! Man I'm obsessed, listening to the music all day, I have about 300 FF pictures on my pc and tonnes of files on memory card! Wow I love Final Fantasy and FFVII is my fave! I so love Vincent and Sephiroth they are the kewlest and Cloud is just plain cute and funny! lol! Oh lookie I'm babbling on again! See ya! Byeeeeeee! XD

Chapter Three

The next day was sunny and bright, but with it also came a chilling frost.  Cid and Tifa both woke up shivering and chattering their teeth.  It wasn't long before everyone else rose from their dreams and realised how terribly cold it had suddenly grown.

"Oh Cloud, hold me." Tifa sighed throwing herself into his arms.  He blushed, clearly embarrassed by her behaviour in front of everyone.

"Damn it's freezing!"

"I'm @*~#'^ freezing my ass off! Anyone got a jumper or something?!"

"Calm down Cid!" Yuffie yelled so loud that everyone turned and stared at her. "What?! I'm COLD! I SHOUT WHEN I'M COLD!!!" She shouted throwing her arms around herself and hopping up and down.

"We should really try and find a cave or something for tonight, we gotta find some way of getting home, back to the main island before this place gets any colder.  Does anyone remember what we saw of the island before we crashed? Like what it looked like? Where we were exactly?" Cloud said.

"It was just a large island surrounded by a wide mountain range on every side, we came hurtling in through a gap in the mountains and crashed somewhere in the centre of the island." Red replied swishing his tail and shivering, but only slightly because his fur coat was thick enough to keep him moderately warm in such conditions.

"Okay, so it's an island surrounded by a mountain range north-east of the world and quite small and out of the way…" Suddenly it seemed as if Cloud, Cid, Red, Yuffie and Tifa all discovered what they had wanted to know for the last few days.  Vincent as usual was standing away from the group silently watching and listening, but he nodded in confirmation and spoke out all their beliefs:

"The Knight's Northern Realm."

"What?"

"'cuse me?"

"Pardon?"

"What the @*~#'^?!" Vincent sighed and spoke out again:

"It's what the Shinra have always called this place, because it has been popular belief that somewhere on this island is a legendary piece of materia holding the power of the summon 'Knights of the round'.  It's strictly secret knowledge only revealed to those three ranks and up below the president of Shinra.  I found out about this place from accidentally hacking into the Shinra Headquarters main control computer one night."

"You're a computer hacker?!" Yuffie blurted out.  The stare Vincent gave her normally made people respect his own personal boundaries, but Yuffie kept in mind what she had seen the night before and kept telling herself that inside he was just as frail and afraid as an old man.  Sad really.

"…Yes." Vincent subsided to Yuffie's unmoving questioning stare and everyone blinked in amazement.

"How good are you?" Cloud said. "Good enough to tell us all the information about Shinra and Sephiroth that you must have seen?"

"Not a very good one, just good enough to find out about the island." Vincent said hurriedly trying to end the conversation, but this was the perfect opportunity for Cloud and the others to find out more about their strange friend by keeping him talking for as long as they could get him to.

"How did you get into the mainframe? Did you have to unlock many codes to gain access?" Cloud said so quickly that Vincent wasn't quick enough to stop himself from blurting it all out.

"Many codes that took me ages to work out and then there was the individual passwords of each employee three ranks below the president, of course I had the access codes on a computer chip that I connected into the machine's hard drive and that gave me access to the mainframe where I could type in all twenty-four individual passwords, and then I had to crack the final code that really wasn't too hard to figure out seeing as it was the president's own password which was the name of Shinra's son's middle name that no one else I know, knows. Marvin." Everyone burst out laughing.  Vincent didn't however.

"Fantastic!"

"Excellent!"

"Who'dve thought you'd be a computer hacker Vincent? Simply marvellous!" This kind of attention towards Vincent was all too much for him, he turned and walked away quickly disappearing into the bushes and out of sight.

"Aw what d'you have to do that for? He's very sensitive you know!" Yuffie whined accusingly at them.

"He's just unsociable." Cid grumbled lighting a cigarette.

"He's not! How do you know?"

"How do you?"

"Can't you see how deeply he's hurt on the inside? He's been trapped in a coffin for thirty years and turned into a monster by a man who stole his girlfriend and destroyed all their lives…" She suddenly realised what she had been saying.  "I mean, I uh… well just think about it will ya?! Lay off him for God's sake!" And then she turned round and headed off in the direction Vincent had gone.

"Well." Tifa sniffed haughtily. "Something tells me she has a soft spot for a certain dark haired old man!" Cloud and everyone gasped in awe.

"No!"

"I don't reckon."

"He aint that old is he?" Cid asked.

"Well Duh." They all shook their heads and began to pack up what little things they had left from the crash and waited for Vincent and Yuffie to return.

_~Final Fantasy VII~_

"Vinny! VINNIEEEEEEEE! Oh WHERE are you VINNY?!" Yuffie stumbled and fell flat into a large area of wet sloppy mud.  She slowly lifted her head with clenched teeth and angry eyes covered with mud to look up at the spiked shoes and then the long legs, past the sweeping red cape into the red eyes of Vincent.  He seemed more ready to laugh than to shout at her.

"Why have you been following me?" He said casually. Yuffie pouted and held up her right hand, just to see if he would take it and help her up.  He didn't.  So she pushed herself up to kneel on the ground and continued to stare disgruntled at his intoxicating scarlet eyes.  Those eyes she had secretly fallen in love with.

"'Cause you just left silly!"

"And why did you follow me?" She blushed unknowingly, Vincent noticed it and suddenly wondered of something he didn't think he wanted to know at all.

"'Cause you're being all quiet and mr-I-don't-wanna-talk-to-anyone again." Vincent smiled, but it was a tiny self-contented smirk and Yuffie instantly felt a pang of fear looking up at those eyes, so she looked down instead.

"Thank you for your concern Yuffie." Then he held out his right hand to her and she took it a little hesitantly telling him how very unusual it was to be offered something so simple and polite from him.

"I'm just being helpful, that's all.  You should go back to the group."

"Where are you going off to now?" She asked as he turned to leave.

"I'm making my own way to the summon materia.  Tell the others to not worry about me; I know we'll meet up again in a few days perhaps.  Goodbye, Yuffie." She watched him swoop away through the trees, watching his red cape fly out behind him like a pair of wings and instantly remembered the form of his final limit break: Chaos.  How alike he and that beast really were in some ways, by the way their red scarlet eyes bore into you like knives, how Chaos' wings held out behind him as impressively as how Vincent's stood with the gentle breeze blowing out his red cape behind him like he also had a pair of magnificent wings himself.  Then Yuffie suddenly realised that she had been standing there looking blankly at the empty space he had been in for quite some time, thinking just about his eyes and how great he looked with that cool red cape over him.  She gasped and blushed for no one to see but she still looked around for any of the others in case they were watching her.

"V…Vinny?" She whispered to herself. "Vin…cent?" She realised then the reason why she had always called him by the childish name of Vinny; because she had always liked him deep down and she never realised.

"Oh POO!" She stamped her feet into the mud splashing a lot onto her shoes then went off in search of a stream to wash in – the one she found yesterday whilst hunting – thinking that she'd rather not return to the camp looking like a swamp monster.


	4. Chapter Four (even though I named it Par...

**Green Pig:-** I have a new Final Fantasy fanfic soon to be posted! It's called (at the moment unless I can think of something better) 'Past Present Pretences' just cuz it sounded cool at the time.  It is a Vincent/Yuffie romance again but there is sweetness between Cloud and Tifa :: everybody say *awww!* :: I've written most of it, and it's written in a completely different way to this which totally works for me and I shall continue on it some more but only when June arrives because that's when I finally leave school and have all of the following months up to September completely FREE!!!!!!!! ::sheds a tear:: it's going to be so wonderful…

Please don't forget to review ::hugs:: I'm in a cuddly mood.

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**Disclaimer:** - Final Fantasy does not belong to me. Squaresoft is cool. ^_^

Part Four

Yuffie bathed in the water and sat under the surface so that only her head poked out of the water and scrubbed the dirt and mud off of her face.  She was muttering to herself and occasionally she froze, listening…

"Who's there?" She said loudly once or twice, but it was never anything, just her imagination.  _Damn it I'm getting too hopeful…stop thinking about Vincent, Yuffie, this is stupid!_

Something rustled in a bush opposite her on the bank.  She instinctively covered herself with her arms and dropped deeper under the water and glared suspiciously at the bush.

"Come out then! Stop peeking at me whoever you are!" A rabbit scrambled out of the bush and look innocently curious at her before hopping away.  Yuffie breathed a sigh of relief, stepped out of the water and dressed again feeling much happier about being clean and fresh from the spring water.  She went back to the camp quickly; sure that everyone wanted to start searching the rest of the island for somewhere to stay the night, before noon came.

Someone came to the water not minutes after she had left and looked curiously at the footprints left by her.  _I wonder if it was Yuffie? _Vincent thought, and was glad that he'd missed her bathing in the water or else he'd have been in a very embarrassing situation.  However, a part of him deep, deep inside that hadn't had a say in anything for the past thirty years suddenly woke up and prodded a thought into his mind and he felt disappointed that he'd missed her.

_Oh well. _And he continued his walk onwards through the forest to the cave at the northern area of the island, sure that somewhere inside would be the legendary materia waiting for someone to take it.  If he got it, then he could…he could…in truth Vincent just wanted to go get it himself and be away from the group for a while, in peace and quiet.  Plus… his left arm was feeling badly sore and heavy, it was getting worse by the day, but at least he had cured himself of the poison by taking an antidote he'd found on an enemy earlier and his arm was no longer broken since he'd fixed that back into place the night before.  Still, he didn't feel that he should risk being near Cloud and the others until he was sure that he was completely safe from being taken over by Chaos.

Vincent felt his head pounding.  He tried to ignore it and ran off through the trees trying to get as far away from the others; he knew what was coming – it was the feeling he got before he transformed into Chaos and when he was that creature, nothing could stop him.  But this was different; usually the time between the headache and the transformation was brief, it had been going on for days now, he had now idea what was coming but he knew it was going to be big, bad and ultimately powerful.

_~Final Fantasy VII~_

Cloud was leading the gang through the cold forests, he didn't really know where he was going but they were heading further into the island to see if they could find any handy caves to spend the night in, maybe even a small settlement of people or something, anything.

Yuffie leapt out in front of them and triggered the whole group to bring out their weapons in surprise.

"WOAH! I'm safe! See?" She said pointing to a VERY large bunch of fruit in her hand.

"Fruit?"

"_Yes_ Cloud, it's called _fruit_." She replied with sweet sarcasm.

"Can we have some?"

"Ummmm…" Yuffie walked around them slowly. "Here Red, have an apple." Red devoured it hungrily.

"Have a banana Barret."

"Is this your way of makin' fun?"

"_Not at all_…mango for Tifa and a peach for Cid aaaaaaand…" She came up to Cloud and gave him a strawberry.

"How'd you find this?"

"With great difficulty, but you deserve one."

"Why?"

"Because you're just so _CUTE_." (A/N *awww so true!!!* ^_^)

"And where have you been? Did you find Vincent?" Yuffie suddenly blushed.

"Er, yeah he said he wasn't coming back so we could go on without him."

"Not coming back?" Tifa gasped.

"Not for a while, he hasn't just given up on us he's just gone away for a while."

"Well who needs that unsociable, sulky @*~#'^ anyway.  Let's forget about him and carry on, my butt's getting' cold!" So they did, they travelled all day and all night, until eventually near the hour of 4am they came across a huge mountain range in front of them.  There was a very high cliff and they could just see that at the top was a cave.

"Hey! Who's that?" Tifa cried out, but too loud, because obviously the person above them heard and quickly hid themselves.

"I think that was Vincent – dude you can recognise his cloak so easily!!" Yuffie shouted out. "Hey, VINNY!!!!"

"Oawwwwww!!! Burst my ear drums why doncha?" Tifa groaned.  Yuffie leapt forward and began to climb up the cliff.

"Come on guys! Let's go get in that cave!!!" They followed her only because it seemed to be the obvious thing to do and she made it to the top first.

Vincent was waiting, the red summon materia glowing in his out stretched claw arm.  The sight of such a powerful looking materia made Yuffie's mouth start to drool inside, but it was made more appealing being held by the man who she had grown to love.

"They coming up?" He said.

"Yeah." He nodded his head towards the cave.

"There's a great map in there made by some explorer years ago – I know where exactly we are and where we can get a boat of some kind back to the mainland."

"You do? I mean, you know how to get back home?"

"No." Yuffie looked confused.

"What?"

"… I have no home.  You're home is far off in Wutai and the others are spread out even more across the world. I can't take you home, only back to the mainland." Yuffie rolled her eyes.

"Okay, okay, so just help us get back to the mainland!" Vincent shook his head and tucked the red summon materia into his pocket.

"…What are you doing?" Cloud and the others were approaching the end of the climb quickly. Vincent was retreating back into the shadow of the cave.

"WAIT!!" Yuffie reached out for him, clambered up onto the top of the cliff and raced into the cave.  It was surprisingly small and empty, where the red materia had lain was now just an empty space.  Vincent had completely disappeared.

Cloud stepped in.

"...But he was just…he came in here…"

"Wasn't Vincent here just now…?" Yuffie started and snapped round to see Cloud.

"Yeah, yeah he was.  He's just disappeared!"

"When? Just now?"

"Yes! Just now!" But there was nothing they could do to bring him back and they used the map to return back to the mainland.  There, AVALANCHE broke up to go their separate ways and return to their own homes, protecting their friends and family from the monsters that were all that remained of Shinra's past existence, until eventually, when they were older with children of their own (all except Yuffie) Yuffie stepped out from her dojo and looked across at the mountains, she thought she heard something calling.

No, it was crying…

**Green Pig:-** Oooo! Okay so I don't know what's gonna happen either!!! We shall see what I can dish up… stay tuned…oo! Review! Pwease? (0),(0)


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